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Hundreds rally on Stuart Causeway bridge to call attention to ailing Indian River Lagoon

Tracy Bresson (center) and Landa Starling (bottom left) of Jensen Beach, wave to passing traffic Saturday morning on the Stuart Causeway. Hundreds gathered for an event to support National Estuaries Day.

STUART

Holding signs and chanting “save our river,” several hundred people lined the Stuart Causeway bridge Saturday morning to show support for the ailing Indian River Lagoon.

The crowd — “lagoonatics,” in the words of one observer — locked hands and had their voices heard amid a typically Floridian mix of rain squalls and morning sun during one of eight “Hands Across the Lagoon” events Saturday from Stuart to New Smyrna Beach.

The lagoon — which stretches 156 miles from Hobe Sound to the Ponce de Leon inlet south of Daytona Beach — has been called the nation’s most diverse estuary, with more than 2,200 types of animals and 2,100 types of plants living there.

Conditions there have been stressed this year by factors such as discharges of polluted water from Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie Estuary, which links the lake and the lagoon. A toxic algae bloom this summer took a major toll on the lagoons sea grasses, oysters and wildlife.

Saturday’s rain kept prevented enough people from turning out to fully line the bridge from one end of the other, but Florida Oceanographic Society director Mark Perry — who coined the term “lagoonatics” — said he was still pleased by the turnout, estimating the crowd at about 800 people.

“What we’re doing to this whole body of water is so horrendous to me that, of course, I’m here,” said Tracy Booth of Stuart, one of the protesters. “We have to do better. This is unacceptable.”

Saturday’s event was part of National Estuaries Day and a chance to call attention to what organizers say is the declining condition of local estuaries. Organizers hope they will get the attention of lawmakers in both Tallahassee and Washington.

It follows other protests this summer about the releases from the lake, including one in Clewiston over Labor Day weekend that brought together environmentalists from Florida’s Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Both the St. Lucie Estuary and the Caloosahatchee River, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico near Fort Myers, have experienced problems from the releases.

“(We’re) just trying to say we have a solidarity. We have a voice,” Perry said. “We have to save these ecosystems.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began releasing water from the lake in May after a record-setting start to the rainy season saw lake levels rise past 16 feet above sea level. As the lake rises so does the corps’ concern for the safety of communities on the lake’s shore.

The 143-mile Herbert Hoover Dike around the lake is in such poor condition that it is ranked among the most likely to fail in the United States. Effects could be felt as far away as Wellington, some studies have found. Higher water levels put more pressure on the dike, so the corps tries to keep the lake’s level between 12.5 and 15.5 feet during the rainy season.

Protesters on Saturday emphasized the effects those releases were having on the environment. As cars crossed the bridge, several people either waved or honked at the crowd. Palm City resident John Kane brought a sign with a simple message: “Stop Killing the The River.”

Said Jensen Beach resident Landa Starling: “We’re killing the life of the lagoon. We’re killing our local businesses who depend on that. Those of that live here and would like to enjoy the water can’t.”